Fight for Progress

[Fury]

Hi guys,

My name is Mitch and it'll be my three year barbell training anniversary coming up in December.

Year 1 I did SS/GSLP - Texas Method to good effect but got a little fat.

Year 2 I kept training but focused on soccer fitness, lost a lot of weight and strength.

This year and including the last couple of months of 2012, I made a come back to strength training and gave up soccer. I competed in my first powerlifting meet in October 2012 in the 83kg class going:

185 kg
102.5 kg
210 kg

Earlier in the year I developed this poor habit of training with volume at too low a percentage as well as neglecting heavy sessions. Basically I had convinced myself I needed more light sessions and turned into a complete pussy as a consequence.

Since realising this, the last couple of months have gone well with me hitting PRs consistently. My general approach to programming is now 4 weeks of volume (75-90%, hitting betwenn 10-30 total reps per session for my main lift) followed by 2 weeks of intensity (90%+ with 10 reps total or less).

I'll determine what volume/intensity PRs I want to hit at the end of the cycle and work backwards from there. It seems that if I can hit good volume PRs at around 85% towards the end of the volume block, I'll make good progress with the intensity stuff. I might choose to focus on a particular rep range (almost never more than 5s for main lifts) but I don't get to much more formulated than that.

I'll have an easier session when I feel I need it. Lately this has only occured once or twice during a cycle. I'll keep the percentages as high as I feel like I can and mainly look to reduce reps.

My training looks like this:

Monday: bench + assistance
Tuesday: squat + back and arm assistance
Thursday: bench + assistance
Friday: squat + deadlift + back and arm assistance

Diet wise, I hit between 200-250g of protein per day and make up the rest of my odd 3,500 calories with about 20-30% fat and some decent carbs. I'll through most of my junk food in post workout.

Current PRs:

Squat: 195 x 5
Bench: 112.5 x 3
Deadlift: 210 x 1

Stats:

Age: 26
BW: 86 kg
Sex: Male

I'll enter a meet within the next year but this time I'll be competitive.

I know I can't afford to get soft and go through the motions in the gym like I did earlier in the year. If I do, I'll make no progress. That thought is the inspiration for my log title.

This section of the site seems to have a really good atmosphere made up of people that are strong and train hard. I think posting on here will only be a good thing. It should keep me honest and help me learn along the way.

Last night's session:

Bench: 100 x 3
Close Grip
Rope Pushdowns
EZ Skull Crushers

I'm approaching the end of a cycle and this was a light session in prep for an attempt at a new PR in the next few days.

[elVarouza]

Welcome to the logs! Nice lifts at 83kg. Where are you from? As far as I know, USAPL still uses the old weight classes (82.5kg, 90kg, etc) for everything except nationals and hasn't switched to 83kg, 93kg, etc. yet.

[Fury]

Welcome to the logs! Nice lifts at 83kg. Where are you from? As far as I know, USAPL still uses the old weight classes (82.5kg, 90kg, etc) for everything except nationals and hasn't switched to 83kg, 93kg, etc. yet.

Thanks for the welcome! I'm an Aussie living in NZ.

Yesterday:
Squat 180 x 2. Prep for Tuesday.
EZ curl
Barbell Row

[Fury]

Bench: 112.5 X 1. 110 X 7 X 1.
I wanted something like 115 x 3 ideally but after the 112.5 that clearly wasn't going to happen so I settled for a bunch of heavy singles. It's been 7 days since my last big bench session and looking back over my training notes, my best sessions come after a 10-11 day peaking phase. Will be interesting to see how squats go tomorrow. I believe it's been 9 days.
Close grip
Close grip floor press
Skull crushers
Over head pressing still hurts left shoulder joint

[Fury]

10 day peaking phase rule has paid true again. Last heavy squat session was two Saturdays ago and today I felt fresh during the warm ups. Right then I knew I had a PR in me.

Squat: 200 x 3. PR. I haven't squatted this heavy for about two years and last time I did, I only managed 1 rep.

DL: 200 x 1. Happy with this too considering my dead lifting infrequency. I'll be hitting it once every 7-10 days from now on though.

[Jordan Vanderkroft]

Squat: 200 x 3. PR.

Colossal.

[Fury]

Bench: 90 x 5 x 5
Close grip floor press: 65 x 5 x 5
Light press - shoulder still hurts.
Skull crushers: 40 x 8. 30 x 2 x 8.

Whole session short rest.

[Fury]

Squat: 160 x 2 x 5
DL: 160 x 5
Rows: 75 x 3 x 8
Shrugs: thumbless 100 x 3 x 10
Ezcurls: 40 x 3 x 8, 30 x 8, 10
PWO: 2 x double cheeseburgers, fries, choc thick shake, 2 x pints of cider.

[Jordan Vanderkroft]

PWO: 2 x double cheeseburgers, fries, choc thick shake, 2 x pints of cider.

I know you probably don't care, but you might want to read what Feigo has to say about high fat PWO meals:

"Essentially these glucose receptors are primed and read to absorb carbohydrates and are upregulated for a good bit of time PWO, which is why we dose some carbs here. If you give a good whack of fat in the mix too fat will be stored very efficiently in adipose tissue, especially with a bunch of carbs, which will be metabolized first. So basically, I don't wanna add fat when I know it will be used for storage almost immediately and potentially could blunt some carbohydrate shuttling, especially in those who may not tolerate carbs all that well at the moment.

There's more science to it but that's the gist."

[Fury]

if I dont get my burgers in post workout, when do I get them?